Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press
under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the
data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Statement of
Keith Hall
Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Friday, July 8, 2011
Nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in June
(+18,000), and the unemployment rate, at 9.2 percent, also
changed little. Over the past 2 months, job growth has slowed
markedly. Employment rose by an average of 215,000 per month
from February through April of this year, compared with an
average of 22,000 for May and June.
Mining employment continued to expand in June, with a job
gain in support activities for mining (+7,000). Employment in
professional and technical services also continued to increase
(+24,000). The industry has added 245,000 jobs since reaching a
recent low in March 2010. Leisure and hospitality employment
edged up over the month (+34,000).
Employment in manufacturing was flat in May and June,
following 6 months of gains that totaled 164,000. Employment in
temporary help services changed little in June and has shown
little net growth so far this year. Most other private-sector
industries showed little or no change over the month.
Employment in government continued to trend down (-39,000)
in June. Federal employment declined by 14,000. The number of
jobs in both state government and local government continued to
trend down over the month and has been falling since the second
half of 2008.
Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm
payrolls were down by 1 cent in June to $22.99. Over the past 12
months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.9 percent. From
May 2010 to May 2011, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban
Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 3.4 percent.
Turning now to measures from the household survey, the
unemployment rate was 9.2 percent in June, and 14.1 million
people were unemployed. Since March, the unemployment rate has
risen by 0.4 percentage point, and the number of unemployed
persons has increased by 545,000.
The employment-population ratio declined to 58.2 percent in
June. Among the employed, the number of individuals working part
time who preferred full-time work was essentially unchanged at
8.6 million.
The labor force participation rate was little changed, at
64.1 percent, in June. Among those outside the labor force--
persons neither working nor looking for work--the number of
discouraged workers in June was 982,000, down from 1.2 million a
year earlier. These individuals were not looking for work
because they believed no jobs were available for them.
In summary, nonfarm payroll employment in June was
essentially unchanged for the second consecutive month. The
unemployment rate, at 9.2 percent, was 0.4 percentage point
higher than in March.